Emergency Medical Services

Emergency Medical Services is an essential component of the myriad of services provided by the fire service in the United States. The fire service often performs Emergency Medical Services (EMS) because they are strategically and geographically well positioned to deliver time critical response and effective patient care expeditiously.

Andover Fire Rescue (AFR) provides Emergency Medical Services at the Basic Life Support (BLS) level to the Town of Andover 24/7/365 with most of its personnel trained and certified as Emergency Medical Technicians-Basic. Andover Fire Rescue and its EMS personnel are licensed and trained to administer controlled substances to those patients that medically require them such as Albuterol, Epinephrine, Narcan, aspirin, and glucose.

Andover Fire Rescue collaborates with Lawrence General Hospital to provide Advanced Life Support (ALS) Paramedics to care for those who are critically injured or acutely ill. This collaboration is commonly referred to as a two-tiered system where Andover Fire Rescue EMS personnel respond to incidents immediately and if it is determined that there may be an indication that Paramedics may be needed they too respond to the incident in the event a higher level of patient care is required.

Andover Fire Rescue EMS personnel will transport the ALS patient in their ambulances to the closest or preferred medical facility and cohesively work together to deliver the best possible pre-hospital patient care while en route.

Andover Fire Rescue utilizes cross-trained/dual role firefighters for EMS first response and ambulance transport as it has many unique and distinct advantages over other EMS delivery models such as:

Continuity of patient care between AFR first responders and AFR ambulance personnel who are part of the same organization

Continuity of administration

Continuity of medical training

Continuity of EMS equipment

Continuity of Standard Operating Guidelines

Unity of Command

Ability to perform EMS while performing other specialized rescue skills such as vehicle extrication, hazardous material identification, rope rescues, water rescues and other incidents that may require specialized skill-sets.

Andover Fire Rescue staffs two ambulances with two EMT’s at its Central Headquarters located at 32 North Main Street and at the West Fire Sub-Station located at 200 Greenwood Road.

Andover Fire Rescue Fire/EMS personnel respond to approximately 4400 incidents annually and transport approximately 2600 patients. The AFR ambulance service generates approximately $1.4 million in revenue on an annual basis which offsets the actual operating costs required to provide this vital and important service.

Andover Fire Rescue EMS utilizes the services of New England Medical Billing (NEMB) for all of its billing services.